In many soil separators used to screen out coarse material from finer soils, feeding of soil to be separated is accomplished by dumping the material from a shovel of an excavating vehicle onto a grate or screen of the soil separator.
Soil separators traditionally have employed an inclined screen having a high end and a low end onto which the soil to be separated by screening is loaded gradually such that the larger rocks and aggregate roll off the low end of the screen and finer materials pass downwardly through the screen at a gradual feeding rate to prevent clogging. Improved soil separators such as "Screen All" soil separators, a registered trademark of The Read Corporation, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,197,194; 4,237,000 and 4,256,572 and are hereby incorporated herein by reference. These soil separators have a box like housing and in addition to an upper coarse mesh screen, employ two lower slanted screens connected to a vibrator for shaking soil material loaded on the upper screen and contained thereon for screening by side panels and a high end panel, the low end being open. The very coarse material loaded on the upper screen is screened out initially by the slanted upper coarse mesh screen, the large particles passing from the upper section of the screen downwardly along the slanted surface of the upper screen and rolling off the lower end to be collected. The less coarse material passes through the upper screen and encounters shaking action of the lower slanted screens which accelerate the process of separating permitting a faster rate of loading, with the finer materials passing downwardly to a segregated bin under the housing accessible for removable from the high end. In as much as the low end of the coarse screen is open for releasing coarse materials, it is not feasible to dump a large load on the slanted screen, as much of the fine material would pass off the lower end with the coarser material and become co-mingled with the coarse soils.
The loading and feeding of the soil separators may be done by a conveyor or input hoppers or more frequently by dumping soil material on to the top screen frequently positioned in a hopper from the shovel of an excavating type vehicle, like a front end loader. When an excavating vehicle, such as a pay loader, is employed it is necessary to feed the soil material at a controlled rate onto the upper inclined grate, the soil material being funneled onto the grate by upwardly inclined side panel sections, and the high end funnel surface which serve as a hopper. This feeding operation requires time and a certain degree of skill on the pay loader operator's part and therefore ties up the use of very expensive equipment at considerable cost and inconvenience.
It is therefore desirable to provide for an improved effective soil feeding mechanism, and to a soil feeding mechanism in combination with a soil separator to provide for controlled rate of loading and improved seperation of finer soils and to a method of feeding soils to be separated into a soil separator employing the improved soil feeding mechanism.